75,000 still without power in eastern Massachusetts

The number of homes and business without power in Massachusetts following Monday's storm has been cut to 75,000 as of 9 p.m. Tuesday.

National Grid reports 67,000 customers without power and Eversource reports 7,600.

National Grid said on its website that all power will be restored by Wednesday. The company said its focus Tuesday is on nursing homes, schools and shelters.

By 9 p.m. Tuesday, Plympton (22 percent) and Lakeville (14 percent) had the most residents without power.

Some communities, including Pembroke, Easton and West Bridgewater may not see service fully restored until Thursday night and it may be Friday before all customers have power statewide.

Wind gusts reached 78 mph in southeastern Massachusetts as the storm flooded streets, and knocked down power lines and trees and left a peak of about 320,000 utility customers without power across the state.

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and Gov. Charlie Baker view the storm recovery as a “multi-day event,” and power companies say much the same, as thousands remained without power Monday night.

"The big issue we have right now is the wind, for all intents and purposes, really didn't die down very much today in a lot of places, which made it very difficult for crews to actually do a bunch of the work that's required to get people back up so it's likely that this is going to take several days," Baker told reporters Monday afternoon.

Southern Plymouth and Bristol counties were hardest hit. Carver had more than 5,300 homes affected, 88 percent of the total. Service was out for 80 percent of Plympton, 63 percent of Rochester and 53 percent of Marion.

There were widespread reports of downed trees and limbs and other storm damage.